The Appleway Bridge, also known as the Old I-90 Bridge, spanned the Spokane River near Stateline, Idaho, on the Washington side of the Idaho-Washington border. It was built in 1939 at a cost of $118,259 and was part of the Appleway, the main highway route between Spokane and Coeur d' Alene, Idaho. This route was also known as Primary State Highway 2 (PSH 2), and US 10. The bridge continued to serve as the main route over the Spokane River between Spokane and Coeur d'Alene even after US 10 became designated as part of the Interstate 90 route, under the new federal interstate system. In 1977, a new limited access freeway portion of I-90, with a pair of new modern bridges, was completed just south of Appleway Bridge. After that, Appleway Bridge was transferred to Spokane County, and it continued to serve as a secondary route over the river, connecting East Appleway Avenue on the Washington side with West Seltice Way on the Idaho side. The bridge's condition deteriorated over the decades. In 2007, Spokane County imposed weight restrictions on the bridge, restricted it to two lanes and designated the bridge for replacement. In 2010, the county accepted a $6.2 million bid for a replacement bridge at the same location. Removal work began in late May 2010 and by August the Appleway Bridge was gone. The new bridge is expected to be constructed by the spring of 2012.
File 9435: Full Text >

The Barstow Bridge, a surplus military bridge, was placed across the Kettle River in 1947, after floods damaged several earlier bridges. The bridge is located in Northeast Washington on the border between Stevens and Ferry counties, not far from the Canadian border. Since it was a bit short in length, an additional structure was added on to enable it to span the river. After more than 60 years in service, the Barstow Bridge is scheduled to be removed in 2010. It has been put up for sale. If a willing buyer is not found, the bridge will be demolished. The Barstow Bridge was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1995.
File 8983: Full Text >

In Washington, bridges are ubiquitous. As of August 4, 2010, there were 9,415 bridges on the Washington State Department of Transportation (WSDOT) inventory. These include all bridges 10 feet and longer, all bridges owned by state and local agencies, and docks and transfer facilities owned by Washington State Ferries. The inventory includes only a few federally owned bridges and it only includes railroad bridges that cross public roadways. Bridges are added and removed from the inventory every year at the rate of about 100 a year. Forest roads and hiking trails also incorporate bridges. This slideshow offers a brief overview of Washington bridges and bridge technology as it evolved over time.
File 8860: Full Text >

The Ebey Slough Bridge in Snohomish County is one of four bridges built between 1925 and 1927 to link Everett and Marysville and complete the last section of the Pacific Highway in Washington state. Upon their completion, motorists could for the first time drive on one road through Western Washington from the Oregon border in Clark County to the Canadian border in Whatcom County. The bridge crosses the northernmost of four waterways that have complicated travel between the two towns since the earliest days of white settlement. Because the slough is used by boats and barges, the Ebey Slough Bridge is a swing span that rotates on a mid-slough pivot to clear a channel for vessels. Although the completion in 1969 of Interstate 5 between Everett and Marysville made the old route less essential, it still carried a large number of vehicles. But the Ebey Slough Bridge was designed for a simpler time; it could accommodate only two lanes of traffic and one narrow pedestrian walkway. The bridge stopped opening for floating traffic in 2010, and in 2012 it is to be replaced by a modern, fixed-span, four-lane bridge with expanded sidewalks and a bike lane. When the new bridge is completed, the old bridge will be demolished. As one of the critical links in the original Pacific Highway and one of only four remaining swing bridges in Washington state, its passing is a matter of historical note.
File 10023: Full Text >

Engineer Homer M. Hadley designed several unique concrete bridges throughout the state of Washington during his lifetime, including many early American applications of the European innovation of concrete hollow-box, or cellular construction. This economical method of construction was used extensively throughout Europe, but was not widely used in the United States until the 1940s and 1950s. It was Hadley who originally conceived the design of a floating bridge across Lake Washington, the large lake that separates Seattle from Bellevue and Kirkland (the Eastside). He visualized a floating roadway made up of a series of hollow concrete barges. Homer Hadley's unusual work reveals the effects of a single innovative engineer on bridge design within the state.
File 5419: Full Text >

The Manette Bridge, spanning the Port Washington Narrows, connected the Kitsap Peninsula city of Bremerton with Manette, a town annexed by Bremerton in 1918 and located across the narrows. The Manette Bridge was constructed in 1929-1930, and a gala celebration accompanied its opening on June 21, 1930. The bridge was partially re-built in 1949, but was still insufficient to carry the rapidly increasing traffic flows brought by high employment at the shipyards. The Warren Avenue Bridge, constructed in 1958 about a half-mile to the northeast, helped alleviate the situation. But during the 2000s the narrow, two-lane Manette Bridge was deemed inadequate. It was replaced by a new bridge completed in February 2012.
File 9477: Full Text >

The Montlake Bridge spanning the Montlake Cut in Seattle was completed in 1925, the last-built and easternmost of four double-leaf bascule bridges that carry vehicle and pedestrian traffic across the Lake Washington Ship Canal. It is set apart from its sister bridges by both its Gothic architectural details and its mechanical design, and has been listed on the National Register of Historic Places since 1982. The Montlake span had a rough road to realization -- Seattle voters denied it funding on five occasions between 1914 and 1922, and when a $500,000 bond issue finally was passed in 1923, it was ruled void for technical reasons. The bridge went before the voters one last time in 1924, finally gaining emphatic approval. Work on the span began almost immediately, was completed in less than a year, and the bridge was dedicated on June 27, 1925. It has served ever since as the only direct link between the Montlake neighborhood and the University District. Unlike the three other vehicle bridges crossing the ship canal, the Montlake Bridge is owned and operated by the Washington State Department of Transportation and is part of the short State Route 513 that runs from State Route 520 to Sand Point.
File 10216: Full Text >

This file contains Seattle historian and photographer Paul Dorpat's Now & Then photographs and reflections on the Fremont Bridge. The bridge crosses the Lake Washington Canal, connecting Seattle's Fremont Neighborhood with Queen Anne on the other side.
File 2577: Full Text >

Address: Interstate 90 and Lake Washington, Seattle. When it was completed in 1940, the Lake Washington
Floating Bridge was the longest bridge of its kind in the world. The floating
concrete structure solved the problem of spanning 1½ miles of water more than 200 feet deep.
File 3227: Full Text >

Address: Queen Anne Drive between 2nd Avenue N and Nob Hill Avenue N, Seattle. The bridge across Wolf Creek, on the north side of Queen Anne Hill is a steel arch bridge, 238 feet long. The parabolic two-hinged arch is unusually high and it has a minimum of supporting members. "The simple concrete forms are embellished by regularly spaced groups of rectangular indentations and by tulip-shaped ornamental lighting fixtures mounted on projecting pier headings" (Kreisman).
File 3209: Full Text >

The 1930 Manette Bridge spanned the Port Washington Narrows and connected the Kitsap Peninsula city of Bremerton with Manette, a town annexed by Bremerton in 1918. The Manette Bridge was constructed in 1929-1930, and was partially re-built in 1949. Traffic increased mainly due to commuters driving to work at the Puget Sound Naval Shipyard. The Warren Avenue Bridge, constructed in 1958 1.2 miles to the northeast, helped alleviate the situation. But during the 2000s the narrow, two-lane Manette Bridge was deemed inadequate and was scheduled for replacement. Demolition work began in the summer of 2010. The replacement bridge opened on November 10, 2011. This slideshow gives a glimpse of the history and technology of the old 1930 Manette Bridge.
File 9506: Full Text >

On April 20, 1884, the first train crosses the Snake River on the Northern Pacific Railroad's bridge at Ainsworth, a railroad construction town located at the junction of the Snake and Columbia Rivers in Franklin County. The completion of the bridge links the Northern Pacific's transcontinental line directly to the Oregon Railway & Navigation track down the Columbia River to Portland, and ultimately to Puget Sound.
File 5033: Full Text >

On December 3, 1887, the Northern Pacific Railroad opens a temporary bridge across the Columbia River from Pasco in Franklin County to Kennewick in what is now Benton County. For the first time, transcontinental trains, which previously crossed the river by ferry, are able to run straight through to Tacoma via Stampede Pass. Part of the temporary bridge is soon swept away by winter ice, but it reopens in April 1888. A permanent bridge is in place by July 1888, marking final completion of the Northern Pacific Railroad.
File 5365: Full Text >

In 1889, the West Coast Improvement Co., seeking to improve the land that becomes known as Ballard, builds the first bridge across Salmon Bay. It is a wagon bridge made of puncheon (split logs with the face smoothed). The bridge rises and lowers with the tides. (Salmon Bay is now part of the Lake Washington Ship Canal, in Seattle.)
File 3437: Full Text >

On October 17, 1889, the first Monroe Street Bridge in Spokane is completed. The first bridge on the site is a rickety wooden affair built by the Spokane Cable Railway Company in partnership with the city and private interests. It will burn down in 1890 and be replaced in 1892 by the second Monroe Street Bridge, a steel bridge.
File 7667: Full Text >

In 1890, the West Coast Improvement Company builds the second bridge, a railroad bridge, across Salmon Bay. This is part of its land development plan for Gilman Park, soon to be renamed Ballard (annexed to Seattle in 1907). The firm built the first bridge, a wagon bridge, the year before. Salmon Bay will become part of the Lake Washington Ship Canal.
File 3438: Full Text >

On July 1, 1891, the first Latona Bridge, which spans Seattle's Lake Union, is dedicated. The fixed-span bridge crosses Lake Union from the Eastlake neighborhood to the University District, and supplants a certain amount of rowboat traffic on Lake Union. It crosses the lake at the position of the future Interstate-5 bridge. In 1919, the University Bridge (a bascule bridge) replaces the Latona Bridge.
File 3328: Full Text >

In 1892, a wood trestle is built from Seattle's Fremont neighborhood to the foot of Queen Anne Hill across a narrow canal dug in the 1880s to connect Lake Union with Salmon Bay (later part of the Lake Washington Ship Canal). This trestle has a walkway for pedestrians and a roadway for streetcars and horse drawn vehicles. It enables greater access to Fremont and spurs the community's development.
File 3309: Full Text >

On June 27, 1892, Spokane's second Monroe Street Bridge, a steel bridge, is completed. It replaces a rickety wooden bridge that burned down in 1890. The steel Monroe Street Bridge will be replaced in 1909 with Spokane's historic concrete arch Monroe Street Bridge, at the time the largest concrete-arch bridge in the world.
File 7683: Full Text >

In September 1894, August E. "Ed" Timmerman, a rancher, completes a cable ferry at the future Columbia point, near Richland. Realizing the place would be an ideal place to build a cable ferry, he buys land, builds two towers on either side of the river, and launches the ferry. It operates until 1931 when automobile bridges render it obsolete.
File 8453: Full Text >

In 1896, citizens near present-day Jordan in Snohomish County build a suspension bridge over the South Fork of the Stillaguamish River. Its purpose is to connect the homesteads along the river to each other and to get the children to the school on the east side of the river. A few years later, the bridge will be widened to support light vehicles, horses, and cattle. After the expansion of the Jordan Valley Mine in 1922, it will continue to provide an adventurous way across the river to residents of the area. Today, a new more solid suspension bridge has replaced it. It is located on Jordon Road about six miles southeast of Arlington.
File 9325: Full Text >

On June 24, 1899, the Lewiston-Clarkston Bridge, the first bridge to span the Snake River between Washington and Idaho, opens for traffic. The 1,700-foot-long bridge connects Clarkston, Washington (Asotin County) and Lewiston, Idaho. The span is a toll bridge; fees are five cents to cross if you are on foot, ten cents if you are on a horse or in a wagon.
File 7612: Full Text >

In 1902 or 1903, King County builds the first drawbridge over the Duwamish Waterway at Spokane Street. The bridge crosses the newly dredged Duwamish River and connects Seattle to West Seattle. Seattle will build a second bridge in 1907 after West Seattle is annexed into the city.
File 3510: Full Text >

In 1903, the Riverton Draw Bridge (also called the Riverton Drawspan and designated King County Bridge 622-A) is built and placed into service. The wooden plank, swing-span bridge, which crosses the Duwamish, is built to carry foot traffic and horse-drawn vehicles, but is quickly forced to accommodate automobiles as well. The west foot of the bridge is in the community known as Riverton, and the east foot is in the small settlement called Allentown. The road approaching the bridge on the west side of the river crosses the Puget Sound Electric Railway (Interurban) track at grade (at the level of the rails). Drivers entering the bridge from the west must make a sharply angled blind turn from road to bridge, which renders the bridge and its west approaches extremely hazardous.
File 4252: Full Text >

In 1907, the Second Spokane Street drawbridge is completed connecting Seattle to the newly annexed West Seattle. The wood structure has two 80-foot spans and a roadway 20 feet 4 inches wide. It carries vehicles and streetcars.
File 3511: Full Text >

In 1908, the first highway bridge to span the Columbia River opens at Wenatchee. The privately owned bridge carries people, horses, wagons, and a rare motorcar, and also water in two large pipelines along its sides. It connects Chelan County on the Wenatchee shore with Douglas County on the eastern shore (now East Wenatchee), and opens Douglas County to apple orchard development. It is a 1,060-foot pinconnected steel cantilever bridge and costs $177,000 to build. It will carry the Sunset Highway (State Road No. 2, later also U.S. Highway 2 and redesignated Primary State Highway 2) across the river after that highway opens in 1915. In 2011 it will still be used as a footbridge and will be the oldest extant steel cantilever bridge in Washington.
File 5172: Full Text >

On November 5, 1908, a special train carries the Great Northern Railway's "Empire Builder" James J. Hill, (1838-1916) and his party from Portland to Vancouver, Washington, across the new Spokane, Portland & Seattle Bridge. This bridge will still be in use as the Burlington Northern Railroad Bridge in 2008.
File 8740: Full Text >

In 1911, the Oxbow Bridge over the Duwamish River on 1st Avenue S at S Michigan Street is completed. The low-level swing span is one of the first three permanent steel bridges in Seattle and is a joint project by Seattle, King County, and a real estate company. It replaces a wood structure built in the 1890s. In 1916, the bridge will be altered and shifted to accommodate the newly rechanneled river.
File 3509: Full Text >

In 1911, Seattle's 12th Avenue South or Dearborn Street Bridge is erected. It is one of the first permanent steel bridges build in Seattle. In 1974 it will be renamed the Jose Rizal Bridge (for the Filipino hero). In 2007 it is the state's oldest steel-arch bridge.
File 8437: Full Text >

On May 31, 1911, Fremont's first high bridge over Lake Union, called Stone Way Bridge, opens to traffic. Fremont is a neighborhood of Seattle. The bridge performs service until June 15, 1917, when the Fremont Bridge, built as part of the Lake Washington Ship Canal project, opens to traffic.
File 3313: Full Text >

On November 23, 1911, Spokane's third Monroe Street Bridge opens. Considered a marvel of beauty and functionality, it is the largest concrete-arch bridge in the United States. A major transportation link, the bridge becomes a "revered symbol" of Spokane ("Bridging the Past ...," Spokesman-Review), and "Spokane's premier character-defining landmark" (Holstine and Hobbs). The bridge is designed and constructed by Spokane city engineers, and the elaborate ornamentation is provided by the Spokane firm of Kirtland Cutter and Karl Malmgren.
File 7669: Full Text >

Kent resident Michael C. Atkins submitted this retrospective on the Allentown Covered Bridge (built 1903, burned down 1956), which spanned the Union Pacific rail line. The bridge was replaced by the Codiga Bridge, which carries S 129th Street over Interstate 5 and railroad tracks. Allentown is located in King County just north of Tukwila and west of Skyway. Michael's family has lived in the Skyway area since 1956.
File 7812: Full Text >

HistoryLink.org is the first online encyclopedia
of local and state history created expressly for the Internet.
(SM)
HistoryLink.org is a free public and educational resource produced
by History Ink, a 501 (c) (3) tax-exempt corporation.
Contact us by phone at 206.447.8140, by mail at Historylink, 1411 4th Ave. Suite 803, Seattle WA 98101 or email admin@historylink.org